§ COLONEL O'BEIRNEasked the Chief Secretary to the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, Whether an independent inquiry is about to be instituted at once into the circumstances attending the election of clerk of petty sessions for the districts of Dromod and Drumsna, county Leitrim, held on the 24th July last; whether it is a fact that Mr. Ruthven, J. P. for the counties of Galway, Tipperary, and Leitrim, and who was one of the magistrates that voted on that occasion, after the election was concluded, peremptorily ordered the acting clerk at Dromod, Constable Walker, R. I. C. to insert his (Mr. Ruthven's) name in the order book, as having attended at Dromod in his magisterial capacity once in January 1882 and once in March 1882, in order to be qualified to vote for a clerk of petty sessions in the Dromod district, although it can be proved, on sworn evidence, that Mr. Ruthven did not act in his magisterial capacity on either occasion; and, whether it is a fact that Constable Walker strongly remonstrated when ordered to make the above-mentioned entries; and what action do the Government propose taking with reference to Mr. Ruthven's conduct?
§ MR. TREVELYANThe attention of the Lord Lieutenant had already been called to the circumstances attending the election of a clerk of petty sessions for the districts of Dromod and Drumsna; but no decision on the subject has yet been arrived at. I can, however, promise the hon. and gallant Member that the matter will be fully investigated before His Excellency's decision is pronounced.